Banks open branches here despite crisis

Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel Banks are expanding despite the credit and banking crisis. This branch of Bank of America is opening at the intersection of Tysens Lane and Hylan Boulevard, New Dorp.Looking around at new bank branches being built today in the borough, it's hard to believe a banking crisis recently subsided and a credit crisis still lingers.

At least three new bank branches are under construction here, and more are planned for Staten Island. At one location in Richmond Valley, a TD Bank is going up on one corner and a Northfield Bank is planned for the opposite corner.

Expanding banks include both regional and community banks and, to a lesser degree, larger institutions that received bailout money from the federal government.

While the local trend bucks a national one of downsizing, banks expanding here are likely doing so because the nearby financial capital of the world, Wall Street, has undergone seismic changes.

Some large banks or financial institutions have shut completely or divested themselves of services such as private banking or wealth management.

"Some banks see an opportunity to pick up market share that would fuel their growth in a given market," said Mack Wood, a managing director of Sheshunoff Consulting, which tracks the financial services industry.

"I think the good thing for consumers is that there are groups of customers whose preferred delivery channel is still the branch," he added.

TD Bank plans to open two new branches next month, in Port Richmond as well as in Richmond Valley.

Brandon Williams, senior vice president of retail banking, said the bank had very little exposure to subprime lending and a lot of liquidity -- two ingredients that protected the institution during the recent downturn and positioned the bank to expand.

Williams said the bank is growing organically, or through the opening of new branches with a focus on customer service, rather than through acquisition and merger.

"Right now in markets like New York City, that's clearly the way to go -- to grow organically," he added.

Northfield Bank, which went public in 2007, also successfully avoided the subprime crisis and is expanding now by opening new locations. The bank is building a new branch on Hylan Boulevard in Grasmere and it recently signed a lease to open the aforementioned branch in Richmond Valley.

The latter will be built on the grounds of the former Lucent Technology laboratory, directly across the street from the under-construction TD Bank at Page Avenue and Richmond Valley Road.

John Alexander, Northfield's chairman, said there is room to grow in the borough, where the average bank branch in the borough holds an estimated $90 million in deposits.

"Staten Island is a very fast-growing borough with good income. It's a place where we recognized we had some holes in the branches and decided to fill them out," he said.

As for the credit crisis that has rocked small business, Alexander said Northfield works with clients who are hurting.

He said one longtime customer who makes paving stones has struggled in the down housing market. The bank is working with the business owner by extending the term on some of his loans while the owner cuts worker salaries.

Joe Macchia, senior vice president of retail banking at Empire State Bank, which like Northfield did not take government bailout money, said his bank's lending standards remained unchanged post-financial crisis.

"I would venture to say the smaller banks -- the community banks -- probably have never done anything different," said Macchia, who also hopes to open a second Empire State Bank branch in the borough.

But bigger banks that took money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, are also expanding here now.

Capital One plans to open its fifth branch in the borough on Forest Avenue in West Brighton in the spring. And Bank of America, one of the country's biggest banks and one that recently paid back a $45billion loan from the government, opened a new branch in Oakwood in July. It's the bank's second branch in the borough.

"In the case of the Hylan Boulevard location, we identified a need and responded to it," said bank spokesman T.J. Crawford. "Our banking centers have been and will continue to be the cornerstone of our distribution model."